Essay #1

American environmentalist John Muir stated, “The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
Art has been an intrinsic part of me from a very young age, but became ritualistic four years ago.  My husband became very ill while attending graduate school in Arizona.  Our families lived 12 hours away, and I had to find a way to keep our little family of five functioning.  Every day was a balance of caring for my young children, and keeping my husband alive.  

In solitude each night, I started painting again.  I learned about technical pen, and rediscovered the art of mark making. The tension melted away and gave balance to the chaos.  Our living room became an art studio, where my children and I could create unrestrained.  I utilized this artistic coping mechanism, and watched our walls fill with more than one hundred pieces of art by my children and myself. Now, four years later, my husband's art has begun to join ours again.

There is an influence of nature that becomes prevalent in my work.   I wrongfully assumed that there wasn't a place for my art and ideas in the art world.   I have been pursuing ways to be relevant in contemporary art, while fueling my work with the themes I care most about.  This is accomplished through the realization that art is NOT linear, and IS subjective.

I have reinforced that realization by further study of printmaking. Printmaking has been invaluable to my process as an artist.  It has forced me to get out of my head and just make.  I am learning how to prevent the setting of unnecessary parameters on my work... thus allowing new directions and possibilities to be attainable.  The self-imposed restrictions were stunting my progression as an artist, and as a creative thinker.

This will be vital to remember for my success as an art teacher. When deciding to go back to school after a 10 year hiatus, I became a non-traditional, older student. This has given me greater insight and appreciation for my education, and my art.  I know what I want to do, and I am developing my teaching philosophy to work as a vehicle for my progression as well as my future students. I want to give students tangible, immersive opportunities to share that piece of their personal history.

Essay #2

In June 2017, my husband Matt had to have emergency back surgery.  He had exacerbated a former injury while weight lifting, and could barely walk. Due to complications, he was at the hospital four extra days, and I was told by the surgeon that there should have been partial paralysis. We were fortunate, but there was a lot of down time, during a difficult time.

The injury affected his severe anxiety, that took processing and communication. We utilized this time to collaborate on some artistic ideas, that became intrinsic to my current body of work.

The words we say to people who are suffering emotionally, physically, but especially mentally are important. Unfortunately, society is filled with hollow conversations and empty platitudes.  These seemingly benign phrases are rarely beneficial.  When a relative tells my husband that "Everything happens for a reason", or a neighbor tells him to "have more faith, hang in there"

... they are unknowingly tearing down rather than building up.

Therein lies the problem- people are opening their mouths, without realizing the full impact they have on a person who is suffering. People want to say, "How are you?" with the response being, "Good." not an actual in depth conversation, exposing vulnerability.

The individual in pain becomes more isolated, when empty platitudes are used. There is little validation... it is a one sided conversation, lending toward surface instead of depth.  My woodcut project is a series of seven, intended to change the dialog, and the way in which we have it.  This is a manifestation of my progression... as I was complicit.  When I did not know if I would come home to find my husband alive, I was saying what I thought was helpful... when it was much better if I shut my mouth, and held him while he rocked back and forth.

This body of work is to create mindfulness.





Amanda Joy BFA- Plastic Lung

"Plastic Lung"

Relief Woodcut
9"x12"
Included in the Intermountain Sustainability Conference 2018
Advanced Printmaking 4200
February 2018

Vital to inhale, yet breathing this air will fail,
At keeping us wholly alive.

Each plastic breath, is one gasp closer to death,
As the issue gets shoved aside.

Why do we selfishly immortalize the pattern of convenience that is leading to our demise?  We can no longer ignore our impact, nor place resolution with future generations. Action is Now! Preservation is Now!

Amanda Joy BFA- Vermillion and Moonlight

"Vermillion and Moonlight"

Multiple Plate Woodcut
12"x12"
16"x20" Framed
9-stage reductive woodcut
Included in the Press On Event, December 2017
Intermediate Printmaking 3200
November 2017



Time exposes the layers of sandstone, silt-stone, limestone, and shale. Moonlight kisses the desert, and the remote places where human lights are dim… the celestial lights ablaze.  The river carves through the canyon far below, as if it were blood for the heart.  The desert brings life and takes life. There is adventure in the burnt landscape… waiting to be seen.





Amanda Joy BFA- Sticks and Stones

"Sticks and Stones"

3D black stone and gold thorn sculpture
36"x48"
Included in the Engaged Learning Exhibition on Civility in the Stewart Library, January 2018.
Art Methods in Teaching 3510
December 2017


Is our global family relying far too much on hostility vs. civility?  We hurl words at each other like catapulted boulders, and expect people to be grateful for the beating.
By removing civility from daily discourse, we lose the opportunity for a mutual foundation.  We do disservice to expanding our understanding of topics, peoples, and cultures when we close ourselves off from opinions of others.
We do not have to research intensely to see that civil discourse is a commodity that is in high demand.  It does not require us to change our opinions… it does not involve thorny words meant to obtain our “pound of flesh”. 
The Dalai Lama expressed that, “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”




Amanda Joy BFA- Static Adrenaline

"Static Adrenaline"
3D Wood and Metal Sculpture
12"x36"
Included in the Moments Art Exhibition @PLATFORMS May 4, 2017
Wood, Copper Pipe, Copper leaf, Copper Wire, Black Netting, Internal Copper Fairy Lights
3D Design 1130
April 2017




Amanda Joy BFA- Merry Everything and a Happy Always

"Merry Everything and a Happy Always"

Multiple plate letterpress Christmas card
5"x7"
Printmaking 3200
December 2017

For my first attempt doing the letterpress project, I wanted to make a card that worked for the holiday affiliation of any person that I sent it to. 


Amanda Joy BFA- Left is Always Right

"Left is Always Right"

Screen Print
14"x14"
Printmaking 2200
April 2017


From a young age I knew that something was different.  There were always multiple kids named Amanda in my classes… but I was the only one that was left handed.  There was only one pair of left handed scissors in the elementary class’ broken and weathered pencil box.  Having to dig through the box to find that one engraved LEFTY pair, took more time than it should have. 
           
This was advantageous for my cognitive processes.  To learn to circumvent a system built for a specific group of people (righties), facilitated what could have been a constant frustration.  I am a member of a unique group, that has had to learn to function in an alternate way.  I have had to develop a way of thinking and a way of life, that 90% of the world’s population has overlooked. 


I am weird, and that is okay!


Amanda Joy BFA- We Began As Wanderers

"We Began As Wanderers"
Multi Plate Etching on copper
6"x7"
Key plate with structured image of the star chart in the hard ground, and dipped in ferric acid.
Back plate used a combination of fine rosin and large granules of sifted rosin... lends to the nebulaic flow of spit bite using nitric acid.
White paper with key plate in black ink and back plate in a la poupee.
Black paper with key plate in white ink and back plate in muted a la poupee.

Etching 3215
April 2017

Renowned astronomer Carl Sagan said, "We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still." Tao Te Ching Chapter 25 enhances the notion of the global family working symbolically with the Earth, the Earth with the ways of Heaven and God or Tao, and Tao modeling the ways of nature.  We are part of a beautifully changing life cycle.  From chaos, we can obtain calm.  We can view the quiet majesty of the heavens, and see the infinite, unyielding expanse.  We can explore our true-self in the knowledge that we are part of the cosmic evolution... that we are not insignificant.

Amanda Joy BFA- Muzzled and Compelled to Be Silent

"Muzzled and Compelled to Be Silent"
Multi-process copper etching
9"x12"
This was an assignment to learn multiple intaglio processes.  Included are 70+ hours of hard ground, soft ground, dry point, spit bite, rosin application, mezzotint, viscosity rolls, scraping, and burnishing.
Etching 3215
April 2017

This pieced involved looking at a fairy tale, and giving it a present day application.  The assignment came at the same week as Donald Trump's inauguration as United States President.  I am unaffiliated with either major political party... but was deeply troubled that someone who viewed women so poorly, could make it to that level of power.

Having been on the receiving end of sexual harassment on more than one occasion... raising a daughter who has been assaulted at elementary school twice by boys who had seen things that they never should have... having female friends/family members abused... and knowing that countless women are viewed as conquests and were "asking for it",  I could not abide the thought that the President carried views that this behavior was remotely acceptable.

Women are compelled to be silent.
We are told-
"What we wore invited it"
"We shouldn't have been out that late"
"The fact that a woman was under the influence of something makes it okay"
"If we want to get ahead in the class, job, show there is some sexual quid pro quo"
"That because you are married, consent ends"
"This is no big deal, but keep it a secret or you will get in trouble... or I will hurt or kill you or your family"
"If you really loved me, you would do ______!"

With every effort, I will raise my daughters to have a voice, and my son to respect and defend the voices of the women around him... in a society that frequently devalues us.







Amanda Joy BFA- Dissolution of Preservation

"Dissolution of Preservation"

Woodcut with blend roll
9"x12"
Use of shina woodcut key plate with exposed and accentuated woodgrain, with ombre green blend roll plate.
Submitted and accepted for group exhibition for the 2nd Annual Intermountain Sustainability Summit March 2017

This work is a political statement on the executive branch of government's denial of scientific data- the placement of individuals who care more about big energy, and the money it brings at the expense of the global family.
However, there are those who resist, who strive to preserve the legacies created over millennia.  The time for idle contemplation is past, Conservation and preservation is the persistent watch cry.